"Stay", said the bird, "Stay, stay:
As the summer midnight passes
And the rosy dawn is fingering the
Eastern sky
Enjoy the day
And the dew on the spider's web
And the dappled light under oak and ash:
Why leave the ocean's swell and the seaweed shore
And the whitespread gull, the limpet shell,
The thin, heady air of the mountain peak
And the stream that swells to a river's spate
And a garden, walled, with the scent of thyme,
And the furrowed field where the foxes lie?"
Guide me, Orion
Lead me, Orion
For you are the bright stalking hunter
And your power I obey -
Protect me, Orion
"Remember friends and loves and familiar scenes
And the sad sweet echoes of another time
And the scents and sounds of a childhood gone:
Stay", said the bird, "Oh stay:
This is the scale for your leaping dream,
Here is your life and your resting place."
Then the wood fell quiet – and into the sky
A new bird rose with a plume of fire.
Guide me, Orion
Lead me, Orion
For you are the bright stalking hunter
And your power I obey -
Protect me, Orion
Orion!
Guide me, Orion.
Lead me, Orion.
Guide me, Orion.
Lead me, Orion.
Guide me, Orion.
Lead me, Orion.
